10 Best U.S. Cities For Singles

As someone who’s recently married I can say, without a doubt, I miss my single days. Marriage is great and all, but the fun and freedom that comes with being single is like no other. While some singles spend their entire time being single sulking and wishing they were partnered up, I never felt that way. Being single was awesome. But I also live in the second best city in the world for singles, so maybe that’s why I loved it so much.

Rent.com has put together the top 10 cities in the country for singles who just want to have fun. Note: this isn’t the list of where singles should live if they’re looking to find themselves in a relationship, but a list of the cities where people really live it up and take advantage of every single second of being single. These are the cities where people go out, try new restaurants, dance ’til dawn, and do it all over again the next day.

Based on cities with more than 50,000 renters of in a high concentration of singles over 20 years old, and a population greater than 100,000, Rent.com took into consideration “safety, nightlife activity, variety of dining, dining frequency and coffee shop density,” and put together a list of places that every single should want to live in at least once before they settle down. Sure, the rents aren’t exactly cheap (the median price in New York City is $3,800 for a one-bedroom), but at least at the end of your life you won’t be able to say you didn’t have a good time.

1. San Francisco, CA.
California, unlike many states, literally has it ALL. From mountains for skiing to oceans for swimming, it’s practically a near-perfect part of the world. It kind of sucks that eventually it will fall into the ocean thanks to the San Andreas Fault, but in the meantime, you still have its most prized city, San Francisco, at your fingertips.

2. New York, NY.
In my mind, New York City should be number one on this list, but I’m biased. We may pay through our noses to live here, but we’re also paying for a 24-hour party that won’t stop. Where else in the world can you get sushi, condoms, and vodka delivered at 430am after the bars have closed, but you’re still not done having fun?

3. Washington, D.C.
Politics aside, D.C. has quite a cultural and social scene. And, hey, there’s nothing like being that close to the action if you’re looking to score an internship and become the next Monica Lewinski after a few pints whatever happens to be the coolest bar of the moment.

4. Boston, MA.
It may be small, but it will kick the asses of any other city on this list with hometown pride. It’s also home to the most amount of colleges in one city, which is great even if you’re out of school, because, hello! Adjunct professors! The seafood is too die for, too, because, duh, New England.

5. Seattle, WA.
While I’ll always regret that I was too young to be in Seattle during the height of the grunge scene, I’m told by the many friends who have moved there over the years that Seattle is pretty much the best. It may rain more than anyone would like, but it has amazing coffee, awesome seafood, and a city of people who make wet weather look cool.

6. Philadelphia, PA.
While the city is known for Philly cheesesteaks and the Liberty Bell, it’s also home to pizzerias, a consistent downtown charm, and it spawned everyone’s favorite Roots’ drummer, Quest Love.

7. Minneapolis, MN.
Minneapolis may seem like a random city to be on the list, but being one of the two Twin Cities, it’s known for being a hub of arts and culture in a part of the country that usually isn’t associated with those two words. I kid!

8. Portland, OR.
Although I’ve never been to Portland, I’ve been assured by my Portland friends that Portlandia is an exaggeration, kinda. Even if it isn’t, who doesn’t want to talk about whether or not everything on the menu at that hip new restaurant is organic, cage-free, grass-fed, and the like? Besides, Carrie Browenstein lives there for real, so it must be pretty cool.

9. Jersey City, NJ.
As a New Yorker, it’s practically my job to make fun of Jersey, but I won’t. I have quite a few friends who have moved to Jersey City from NYC and love it. Not only is up and coming, but they get the best view in the world: the Manhattan skyline.

10. Chicago, IL.
Sure the summers are nightmarish, and then spring comes, and summer follows, and hello, beautiful! You may think California is all great with its Coachella, but that’s just because you’ve never been to the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago. Oh, and the museums! Great museums!

I, like Lorene, find most cities in the list to be quite unfriendly. I have been to pratically every state in the USA and more of then fifty countries, and I doubt that my bad luck would have had anything with my experiences in SF, NY, DC and the like.

I happen to live in NYC and it is NOT renown for being a great place for single women to meet men. I have also lived in Portland, Oregon, where even your neighbors won't say hello to you, they are a very unfriendly bunch, and kind of proud of that fact. I can't vouch for the rest of the cities listed here, but I would be very surprised if single heterosexual women are much in demand in San Francisco either.

I could be wrong about San Francisco, but given the fact that the author of this piece mentions you can buy condoms at any hour in NYC, like that fact makes having sex with someone appropriate somehow a done deal, makes me leary of trusting the rest of her list. Let's just say, they don't give out boyfriends with condom purchases here either.